Last week a top-secret Russian shortwave radio station, UVB-76, began broadcasting a coded message for only the fourth time in 28 years. Today we’re exploring another shortwave system within the radioactive zone surrounding Chernobyl, The Russian Woodpecker The Russian Woodpecker was an over-the-horizon (OTH) radar system used during the later years of the Cold War. Broadcast towers used for its shortwave signals are still in place near Chernobyl. The Woodpecker nickname derived from the loud and repetitive signals being broadcast. They were so powerful that they interfered with radio signals and telecommunications around the world, from their beginning…